For the last four months, Haley has spent 2 1/2 hours every Sunday afternoon at our church attending a class called Perspectives with other missions-minded adults and even some teenagers. The homework load was quite intense, but she has absolutely loved it and learned so much. I'll never forget the day we were both sitting in my office here at home, and she nearly broke out in tears as she exclaimed to me, "Mom, I'm doing the wrong thing! I shouldn't be going to Africa! I should be going somewhere else!" She had just learned that Jesus won't come back until every nation, every tribe, and every people group has heard the news of Jesus, and her thought was that people in Africa have already heard about Jesus, so she should be going somewhere else and sharing with those who haven't heard. Bless her heart! We continued to talk about how God is calling her to Africa right now and that maybe this is preparation for her to someday be a part of God's plan somewhere else. Many thoughts were flooding through my mind at the time, and honestly, they still do because I can't help but wonder what God is doing with her. On one hand she's my child who still fights with her siblings, and then on the other hand, I see her with this heart full of compassion for those across the world. Last week Sunday her Perspectives class had their final time together, and we sat with a gal who is soon heading off to the northern part of Africa to teach for a year, and she will be in the midst of 99.9% Muslims. Could Haley feel such a tug someday? Only God knows.
Here is a picture of her at the Perspectives potluck with a couple of her friends, her small group leader who is moving to Texas today, and her new small group leader for next year:
A considerable part of my Monday morning was spent researching what insurance plan to get for Haley while she's gone. She is covered with our medical insurance, but there are so many other things to consider for a trip such as this. We had been referred to two different companies where it would seemingly be as easy as plugging in a little bit of info, getting a quote, and having coverage just that easy, but because of her recent medical fiasco and her hips that tend to need realignment periodically, I had lots of questions. One would think that for a short-term missions trip, we could find an all-inclusive plan that would cover any and all unforeseen events, but what I learned was that these trip insurance plans tend to vary on their coverages and deductibles. One plan was as cheap as $46, and another was as high as $279, and then there are different variations in between. Basically we need to look at things like "what happens if she needs medical attention while she's there," "what happens if she loses her luggage or her flights are delayed," "what happens if she were to die over there," etc. Harris and I ended up having a conversation with her late one night, and one of the hardest things we had to discuss was the "what if something tragic happens here" discussion. Would she want to know? What if she's just days into her trip compared to what if she's nearing the end of her trip? Would she interrupt her trip to come back home for a funeral? Whose funerals would be most important? It would be easy to just kind of avoid that thought process and hope for the best, but honestly, depending on which plan we go with, it all makes a difference. We could go with the thought of, "Hey, she's in Africa, and nothing could be that important for her to interrupt her trip and come back home," or we can face the reality of "what if multiple family members died in a car crash" scenario. Hard, hard stuff. My next move is to contact our health insurance provider and find out exactly how it would work while she's there, and then go back to my pages of notes and make a decision.
We've also been working on her "travel release forms" for GE. They required Harris, Haley, and I's signatures all to be done in front of a notary public at the same time. Our schedules don't coincide very well when it comes to being together during bank hours, so we finally had to pull her out of school for a little bit Tuesday morning to get that done. In filling out all her medical info, I realized that her name had been misspelled on the prescription slips, which turned out to be a blessing in disguise. When I called to get that fixed, I found myself explaining the ovarian cyst scenario to the nurse, and we realized that because of the medication she's on for that, now her malaria and traveler's diarrhea medications will need to be changed also. Thankfully we hadn't filled the prescriptions yet, but now we've moved into a higher-priced malaria medicine. We're still in the midst of figuring some of that stuff out.
Wednesday was the day I finally put some more thought into a farewell party for Haley and sent out an email to our immediate family members inviting them to come. On Sunday, June 13, we will be having an open house here at our home from 3 to 5 p.m. for anyone who would like to come and say good-bye and give her a final hug and maybe even pray over her before she goes. Anyone is welcome and please spread the word! I really want that day to be a special day of people filling her love tank because for the next two months, she won't be surrounded by all her friends and family anymore. That Sunday night we'll be spending together as a family, and then she would like us to all take her to the airport together the next morning. Her flight will leave at 6:30 a.m., Monday, June 14. We found out today that part of her trip to Africa will include a 10-hour stop in Paris, France! She was pretty excited about that.
God gave me some much-needed time alone spent planting flowers on Thursday. It was a time for me just to do a lot of thinking and praying. When my flower supply ran out, I made a trip to the gardening center to pick up a few more, and right at the end I decided to ask for some help in what to put in my pot near the front door that would go with my usual display along my sidewalk, and the lady immediately said, "How about an African daisy?" I'd never heard of one, but as soon as she showed it to me, I was sold. I shared with her that my daughter was going to Africa this summer, and we agreed that this would serve as a bright cheery reminder of her (as if I'll need one!) all summer long. I just have to share a picture!
While I was gardening, I found myself thinking about Haley's fundraising situation. Several people have asked lately how that's going, so I'll just share a few thoughts on that. Her basic trip cost has increased some due to flight surcharges and her shuttle fee, so she still needs $864 more in her GE account. That doesn't include any of the recommended spending money she needs to take with her nor does it include all the incidentals we are incurring for medications, insurance, and packing needs. We have some money set aside to help with all of this, but let's just say we are totally trusting God to sort it all out and provide exactly where needed!
To say I've been a little stressed about the lack of a packing list is an understatement. For whatever reason (lesson on patience maybe?), GE doesn't see the need to get that out to people real soon. My personality type wants a nice neat list of EXACTLY what she will need to take with her, and I really wanted it before Christmas already. God graciously provided me a friend through my Bible study this year who has done some extensive traveling, so she willingly gathered some things together to show us on Wednesday night at her home. She also supplied us with a helpful list, and finally today we were able to print at least a partial list from our GE website. Haley's trip is split up into two countries, and this list is only for what she'll need for the first country, South Africa. That's helpful, but the sleeping conditions in Zambia are what I'm mostly concerned about. I really don't want to be known around the GE office as the grumpy mom who keeps asking for a list, so I'm trying to limit my requests, but tomorrow I'm going to be addressing it again. Haley is not a shopper, but when she got the list today, she was really excited and just had to go out and look for a few things.
Needless to say, not a prayer will be wasted on us as we move forward in this process! Departure time is in three weeks, and much more work needs to be done. This verse came to me a couple times this week, and I'm choosing to live it out: "This is the day the Lord has made; we will rejoice and be glad in it!"
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